Q for Quirrel

Even if it were true that I chose this character just because Q is one of the rarest letters, there cannot have been a better choice than Quirrel. When I was young enough to be deceived by simple plot twists, something of the range that appeared in the HP books completely threw me off guard.

Quirrel – the poor stuttering professor who became the villain in the end. That was how I first saw him and that image stayed for years. Until I read the book for the fifth or sixth time and was old enough to see more into the character that was that damned professor.

So why Quirrel?

Why did Voldemort choose him?

Why was he considered the better choice?

Was it the subject he was supposed to teach?

So many questions surrounded this simple character, and he quickly became one of the most memorable ‘villains’ of the series. But after multiple rereads, I noticed the punishing master / willing slave dynamic that Voldemort had set in place, using the man he considered unworthy, trying to obtain something through him, and killing him mercilessly once it failed.

The power dynamics that mad Quirrel an unwitting slave is what happens to most people who are drunk on the idea that knowledge and power come without consequences. Who are too weak to seek (borrowing that line from Voldemort but with a twist) power for its sake, but are still greedy enough to think they deserve it.

Quirrel was the warning, the character used to show the ruthlessness that can be a part of any association with a person like Voldemort, and by extension, what is the ‘bad’ side.